zdl_cryptofandomcom-20200214-history
Zap (ZAP)
Basics * On Ethereum * Zap’s ecosystem consists of oracles, subscribers (smart contracts consuming data), and the ZapMarket smart contract that connects and manages payments between the two parties. * From their website (12-2019): "Decentralized bonding curve curation market. Providing access to data providers and other services through algorithmic token generation." Token * "Zap recently concluded an ICO presale and will be holding the public token sale on October 21st. In total, 520 million Zap tokens will be created with 173 million available for sale in the ICO. The rest of the tokens will be held by the Synapse Foundation (foundation behind the project) as part of a long-term operating budget." * Token distribution: 55% software development & maintenance cost, 20% token sale, 10% administration (legal, accounting), 10% operation, 5% contingency fund * Long term budget: 47% long term budget, 33& token sale, 10% team/founders, 10% bug/adoption/bounty program Tech * The following comes from an article that did a 'deep dive into Zap: "An oracle is comprised of: *a realtime datafeed* an Ethereum address registered with the ZapMarket smart contract *an IPFS keypair public key with the ZapMarket contract* a data encryption public key registered with the ZapMarket contract * a quantity of ZAP bonded to the ZapMarket contract A subscriber is a smart contract that needs data. It’s comprised of: * an Ethereum address registered with the ZapMarket smart contract * an IPFS public key registered with the ZapMarket smart contract * a data encryption public key registered with ZapMarket smart contract * a quantity of ZAP bonded under an existing oracle in the ZapMarket smart contract When a subscriber requires information from an oracle, it “bonds” ZAP tokens to the oracle through the ZapMarket smart contract. In return, the subscriber gets DOTS which it can use to pay for queries for that oracle. When the subscriber makes a query with a DOT, the ZapMarket smart contract facilitates the exchange of IPFS public keys between the two parties. The two parties then establish a private IPFS pubsub room where the oracle can push data to the subscriber. Zap provides a very interesting payment model. ZAP tokens are the currency of the Zap oracle marketplace. When a subscriber “bonds” ZAP to the oracle, the subscriber is given DOTS and can use them to query the oracle. One DOT = one query. DOTS are non transferable. This whole process is facilitated by the ZapMarket smart contract. To become an oracle, a data provider needs to register with the ZapMarket smart contract. On registration, the data provider needs to specify a DOT/ZAP supply curve. This curve determines how many DOTS are given per ZAP bonded to the oracle. An oracle could have a flat, linear curve, meaning DOTS remain at the same price even with demand increasing. A oracle could also specify an ascending curve, meaning DOTS get more expensive with more demand. This payment model introduces speculators to the market. Speculators are those that bond ZAP to oracles without any interest in spending DOTS (i.e. receiving data). If the oracle has an increasing DOT/ZAP supply cure and the demand for the oracle rises after the speculator bonds ZAP to the oracle, the speculator makes a profit when they convert their DOTS back to ZAP. The allowance of a speculator in Zap’s oracle market is an intentional design element that aims to act as a market refinement mechanism. Speculators are incentivized to discover good data sources and bond to them early. This helps in getting these good data sources discovered by other market participants that are actually looking for data. This market design utilizes many of the same economic incentives as prediction markets. Zap’s ecosystem connects a subscriber with a publisher. The publisher will typically become a single source of truth for the subscriber, making the subscriber vulnerable to a bad actor publisher (unless the subscriber has some fancy consensus system involving multiple publishers for the same data). According to Zap’s whitepaper, the risk of scams is mediated by the fact that each publisher is tied to a unique Ethereum address and new publishers should always be treated with suspicion. On the other hand, long standing or professional data oracles can be afforded more trust. For Zap, blockchain history becomes a sort of trustless reputation system." Team, etc. * The team is clearly formed at the Bitcoin Center NYC, 8 main roles out of 25 team members are from the center. 4 know each other from Bitcoin ATM’s (DAVE) and 3 developers from Public Appeal. * Spanos, Nick; director, organizer Bitcoin Center New York. has a history of business ventures, several of which are related to cryptocurrencies. He cofounded the Bitcoin Center NYC in 2013, a physical coworking space next to the NYSE. also founded Blockchain Technologies Corp in 2011. BTC is a startup accelerator for blockchain-related ventures and it currently manages a portfolio of blockchain technology companies. * Before dabbling in blockchain, Spanos founded getaroom.com and was the CEO of the company for 11 years. He sold it to Hotels.com in 2010. * Young, Ben; creative director, former Bitcoin Center New York * St Laurent, Tom;technical director, former Bitcoin Center New York * Geros, Steve; lead blockchain architect, former Bitcoin Center New York * Beckwith, Dean James; Cryptoeconomist, former Bitcoin Center NYC * Akbari, Kumail; deputy technical director, former Bitcoin Center NYC * Daniel; dev, former Bitcoin Center NYC * Wang, Harry; UI/UX designer; Bitcoin ATM’s (DAVE) * Leelike, John; blockchain strategist, Bitcoin ATM’s (DAVE) * Scappaticci, Sean; technical lead, Bitcoin ATM’s (DAVE) * Proferes, Marc; editorial director, Bitcoin ATM’s (DAVE) * Kanchi; developer, former Bitcoin Center NYC * Baala; developer, former Bitcoin Center NYC Advisors: * Goldstein, Andy; metal * Heyman, Jonathan; digital assets * Campbell, Dwayne; goldman sachs * Zaterman, Danny; MIT * Renov, Evan; beachwood ventures * Hollander, Matt; cash2BTC * Dziejma, Alex; microsoft * Barcia, James; PYPR * Mikkelsen, Peter; Nordic Blockchain Association ZAP compared to Chainlink * The following comes again from the article that did a 'deep dive into Zap: "ChainLink is another prominent oracle service in development right now. While both Zap and ChainLink are products in the oracle space, Zap is focused on building a simple-to-use marketplace where smart contracts can connect to oracles through one intuitive interface and ChainLink is focused on building trustful oracle data streams through decentralization. ChainLink aims to build its own data aggregator service that takes data from a bunch of data streams and returns the majority result. Although this will create highly reliable data streams for the blockchain, there is also tremendous overhead and complexity. ChainLink data will be more expensive and take longer to deliver, something that is not necessary for highly trusted oracles, such as those from professional or long-standing data providers. ChainLink is excellent for enterprise dApps where data integrity is crucial but not so much for “lower-tier” dApps. Ultimately, Zap and ChainLink are not necessarily competitors. ChainLink oracles can serve as purchasable oracle services in the Zap marketplace." Category:Coins/Tokens